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BFI Film Classics
The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal is probably Bergman's best-known work and the film that most clearly bears the director's unmistakeable signature.
The opening scene sets the a stony beach under a leaden sky, the knight alone with his thoughts, then the approach of black-clad Death, whom the knight invites to play a game of chess. Bergman's medieval allegory of faith and doubt is dark with the horrors of witch-burnings and the plague. But it is also shot through with bright flashes of peace and joy, symbolised in the milk and wild strawberries offered to the knight by an innocent family of actors.
In his compelling appreciation, Melvyn Bragg describes his own first encounter as a student with this extraordinary film, and how it revealed to him another cinema, quite different from the Hollywood he had grown up with. He recounts too his later meeting with Bergman himself, and how the marks of the director's powerful personality are everywhere in this troubling and inspiring masterpiece.
The opening scene sets the a stony beach under a leaden sky, the knight alone with his thoughts, then the approach of black-clad Death, whom the knight invites to play a game of chess. Bergman's medieval allegory of faith and doubt is dark with the horrors of witch-burnings and the plague. But it is also shot through with bright flashes of peace and joy, symbolised in the milk and wild strawberries offered to the knight by an innocent family of actors.
In his compelling appreciation, Melvyn Bragg describes his own first encounter as a student with this extraordinary film, and how it revealed to him another cinema, quite different from the Hollywood he had grown up with. He recounts too his later meeting with Bergman himself, and how the marks of the director's powerful personality are everywhere in this troubling and inspiring masterpiece.
- GenresFilmNonfictionArt
73 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
115 people want to read
About the author
Melvyn Bragg
137 books143 followersMelvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, FRSL, FRTS (born 6 October 1939) is an English author, broadcaster and media personality who, aside from his many literary endeavours, is perhaps most recognised for his work on The South Bank Show.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). He is president of the National Academy of Writing. His 2008 novel, Remember Me is a largely autobiographical story.
He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity set up to provide funding support to the British Library.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). He is president of the National Academy of Writing. His 2008 novel, Remember Me is a largely autobiographical story.
He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity set up to provide funding support to the British Library.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 28, 2022
Pleasurable enough to read but not one of the stronger entries in this series. The observations & information that Bragg offers is usually very good in & of itself, it's just that Bragg nobly attempts to cover just too much terrain for such a short text: excursions into personal history, production history, biographical information, a detailed (& mostly unnecessary) synopsis. Each section needs more space to full develop the analysis—at this length it can unfortunately come off as mostly rhapsodic praise.
The section I personally found most enlightening was his recounting of what it was like to be encountering Bergman's films as a teenager during their initial releases, & how daringly modern, sexy, & horny they registered in the 1950s—a nice reminder for those of us now more than a half century on when it can feel necessary to approach Bergman's films with a hushed reverence accorded to Great Cinema. Which if course The Seventh Seal is (I took this up after my most rewatch, which dazzled me all over again).
"There is a Bergman world. It is a landscape lit by the finely modulated greys of Northern European light; it has intensity & intelligence in equal measure; it can be charming & comic & erotic & playful, but this is a place where the shadow is as important as the living figure & the inwardnness of life is as demanding as anything that happens in the world outside."
The section I personally found most enlightening was his recounting of what it was like to be encountering Bergman's films as a teenager during their initial releases, & how daringly modern, sexy, & horny they registered in the 1950s—a nice reminder for those of us now more than a half century on when it can feel necessary to approach Bergman's films with a hushed reverence accorded to Great Cinema. Which if course The Seventh Seal is (I took this up after my most rewatch, which dazzled me all over again).
"There is a Bergman world. It is a landscape lit by the finely modulated greys of Northern European light; it has intensity & intelligence in equal measure; it can be charming & comic & erotic & playful, but this is a place where the shadow is as important as the living figure & the inwardnness of life is as demanding as anything that happens in the world outside."
December 3, 2018
This is just 65 pages of breathless superlatives about what a genius Bergman is and what a masterpiece The Seventh Seal is, which the reader is supposed to take at face value as a given truth, without much supporting analysis or insight. Bragg seems perpetually amazed to the point of slack-jawed wonder at every single thing Bergman does, and the result is a superficial and silly book. I learned a few interesting things about Bergman's childhood, but I'm sure there's better writing about the filmmaker and his films elsewhere.
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November 2, 2024Melvyn Bragg’s monograph on Bergman’s 1957 film “The Seventh Seal” is too heavy on the author’s reminiscences and too light on precise analysis. But it’s a reasonably good reminder of what makes this movie so memorable, and an enjoyable tribute to one of the most influential art films of its day. Mildly recommended.
February 27, 2022
I didn't understand the purpose of this book... It jumps from a philosophical essay about the linked relationship of art and religion to a biography of Bergman to an autobiography of Bragg to a superficial analysis of The Seventh Seal (which should be the focus given the title) to the significance of building a comfortable atmosphere for the actors in a play / movie and how that translates into palpable sense of confidence from the viewer.
It seems like Bragg tried to blend 4 books into a short number of pages which makes it a sort of unsatisfactory read. Anyhow, it serves as a decent introduction to Bergman's works and the philosophies portrayed in his movies / plays as well as the movie scene as a whole for someone who is very unfamiliar with it like myself.
It seems like Bragg tried to blend 4 books into a short number of pages which makes it a sort of unsatisfactory read. Anyhow, it serves as a decent introduction to Bergman's works and the philosophies portrayed in his movies / plays as well as the movie scene as a whole for someone who is very unfamiliar with it like myself.
April 9, 2021
Není to moc o Sedmé pečeti, jako spíš o životě Bergmana. Nejpřínosnější je poslední kapitola, která má ale jen šest stran textu.
August 6, 2022
Nice brief summary.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews